Dips for potato or other crisp chips have become increasingly popular. The original dips were based on sour cream, cream cheese, or other similar dairy products, and required the user to mix the sour cream with flavoring agents to produce a dip. These dips were not long lasting, and needed to be made up fresh for each use.
Later, formulations were produced which could be used for dip bases and included various gums or combinations of gums to stabilize fresh sour cream or cream cheese mixtures, which mixtures still required refrigerated storage. Shelf stable products were limited to dry mix powers which do not approach the quality of fresh dairy dips, or canned products that are primarily made of thick processed cheese, or bean or tomato, and bear no resemblance to a creamy dairy dip.
Prior art formulations for creamy dairy like chip dip bases usually included various gums, usually in combination with pregelatinized starch. Xanthan, carrageenan, or locust bean gums are often recommended for use in combination with pregelatinized corn starch. These mixtures can produce a thick creamy base, but the base will not withstand the heat processing involved in canning the product. After heat processing, the typical problems which occur are excessive whey loss during processing or upon shelf storage, and textural problems such as excessive curdling during processing or grittiness of the product which is not characteristic of a dairy based product. Heat processing of other diary-like bases using micro crystalline cellulose gives products which demonstrate textural problems of gumminess and gelation.